U.S. suicide rates are ticking back upward again after a dip during the pandemic, new statistics show.
Suicide deaths per 100,000 people had fallen from 14.2 recorded in the pre-pandemic year of 2018 to 13.5 in 2020.
However, by 2022, the latest year for which statistics are available, the rate had climbed once more to 14.2 deaths per every 100,000 Americans, report researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This continues a tragic, longstanding trend, they noted.
"From 2002 to 2018, the total rate [of suicide deaths] increased 30%, from 10.9 deaths per 100,000 standard population to 14.2," wrote report co-authors Matthew Garnett and Sally Curtin, of the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
Looking at final 2022 data from the National Vital Statistics System, the researchers found some variations in suicide death by age, gender and method used.
Among males, rates decreased somewhat among boys and young men ages 10 through 24 between 2020 and 2022, but it rose among men over the age of 24.
However, rates for suicide death among males overall did rise, and "the suicide rate for males was three to four times the rate for females across the period," Garnett and Curtin reported.
In 2022, the suicide death rate among males was 23 fatalities per 100,000 people, compared to 5.9 among females.
Nevertheless, the number of girls and women who died by suicide is still higher than in decades past -- from 4.2 in 2002, to a peak of 6.2 in 2018, to a rate of 5.7 per 100,000 people in 2022. Women in middle age seemed to be at highest risk.
Overdoses were the leading method of suicide for females between 2002 and 2015, but by 2022 firearms had become the most common method used, the CDC data showed.
That trend was even more pronounced among boys and men: "The firearm-related suicide rate among males increased from 10.3 [per 100,00 people] in 2006 to 13.5 in 2022," the report's authors said.
The findings were published Sept. 26 as an NCHS Data Brief.
If you or a loved one is in mental health crisis, free, anonymous counseling is at hand 24/7 at the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
More information
Find out more about the warning signs of suicide at the National Institute of Mental Health.
SOURCE: NCHS Data Brief, Sept. 26, 2024
